Dr. Gerald Mako studied History at Cambridge where now he is working on his PhD in Development Studies; trained as a specialist in Central Asian history his research focuses on conversion to Islam/Christianity/Judaism and Soviet/Russian policymaking. Aside from publishing two dozen articles and presenting more than 25 papers across the globe he has also been teaching extensively at the University and is now in the process of setting up his own firm in the education&tech industry.

Kimron Flicker graduated with a BA in Middle Eastern Studies and Psychology from Tel Aviv University and an MPhil in Development Studies from Murray Edwards College, Cambridge. She worked for three years as a private tutor in Tel Aviv, Israel and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her main research interests are Middle Eastern politics and social history.

Max Long is a graduate student at Cambridge University, where he is studying for an MPhil in Modern and Contemporary Literature. His interests lie in technology, the environment and the role of emotion in the process of artistic creation. His dissertation will explore the work of Anna Kavan and Patrick Hamilton, although next year he will begin a PhD in the early history of natural history filmmaking. Max’s work is strongly interdisciplinary; he graduated with a First Class in History from Oxford, and spent a year as a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University, before spending two months learning German at Middlebury College, Vermont, as a Kathryn Davis Peace Fellow. He has also cycled the Iron Curtain Trail in Germany, and tutored students at a Prison in New Jersey.